{"title":"“The Angel of the Topos Shall Bless You”: Preliminary Report on the Cult of the Altar-Angels in Late Antique Egypt","authors":"Frederick W. Krueger","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article presents a first look at some of the key sources and hypotheses of ongoing research on a significant yet ill-studied figure in late antique Egyptian-Christian piety: The “Angel of the Altar,” or “of the Topos,” and later “of the Sacrifice” as he is still invoked in the Coptic liturgy today. Since the 4th century, church canons and literary works aiming to instill fear of the altar in monks and clerics warn of the angel guarding it, who can only be seen by monastic and clerical leaders in visions which become a common feature of post-Chalcedonian Coptic homiletics. This angel figure is identified with God’s destructive power defending the ark/altar/temple in the Old Testament. The “Angel of the Altar” also has the crucial liturgical function of lifting the Eucharistic offering to God. He is even considered the true dispenser or withholder of the Eucharist, overshadowing and potentially nullifying the actions of the priest. Originally an impersonal figure, he is sometimes identified with the specific archangel assigned to the church in question, such as Michael or Raphael. In a further step, it seems that some monastic communities who built their corporate identities on the fame of their respective patron saint began to identify the latter with the “Angel of the Altar,” appropriating the concept for the cult of saints. Documentary papyri show how monastic leaders invoked the Angel as superhuman punisher and blesser in the economic interest of the monastery. It is probably in this context that the variant “Angel of the Topos” emerged, amounting to what seems to be the only technical term for “patron saint of a place” in Coptic.","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124293213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In Militia Dei? A Sociohistorical Perspective on the Pachomian Koinonia","authors":"C. Barthel","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0019","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper draws on sociohistorical methods to explore the overlapping, and at times contradictory, discourses on how to form and structure the religious community that eventually coalesced into the Pachomian Koinonia. It discusses the impact and extant to which established institutions like the Roman army, family and great estates influenced the formation of this monastic movement.","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132944740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Michael J. Hollerich: Making Christian History. Eusebius of Caesarea and His Readers, Christianity in Late Antiquity 11, Oakland, CA (University of California Press) 2021, S. XI + 316 pp. + 1 b/w illustration, ISBN 978-0-520-29536-0, $ 95,–.","authors":"J. Corke-Webster","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127277045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Genesis 1 and the Beginnings of Gnosticism","authors":"C. Markschies","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The contribution examines whether some early Christian thinkers, usually classified as “gnostics,” were influenced in a special way by interpretations of the biblical account of creation in developing their particular doctrine (Cerinthus, Menander, Simon Magus, and Saturninus/Satornil). It turns out, however, that not only is there too little solid information about these thinkers, but the apparent specifics of interpretation are taken from contemporary Judaism. Only the distance between the supreme God and his helpers in creation seems to be more clearly accentuated than in many texts, but this may also be polemics of these Gnostics majority church opponents.","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125518998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nienke M. Vos and Albert C. Geljon, eds.:Rituals in Early Christianity. New Perspectives on Tradition and Transformation, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 164, Leiden (Brill) 2021, XII + 363 pp. + 16 illustrations, ISBN 978-90-04-44097-5, € 25,–; $ 25,– (hardback).","authors":"P. Bradshaw","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"310 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121170608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aaron M. Butts/Kristian S. Heal/Robert A. Kitchen, eds.:Narsai. Rethinking his Work and his World, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 121, Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck) 2020, 290 S., ISBN 978-3-16-159349-9/eISBN 978-3-16-159808-1, € 89,–.","authors":"Dietmar W. Winkler","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124921767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"David G. Hunter: Marriage and Sexuality in Early Christianity, Ad Fontes: Sources of Early Christian Thought 5, Minneapolis (Fortress Press) 2018, ISBN 978-1-5064 - 4593-9; xiii + 272 S., $ 24.00","authors":"K. Greschat","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126752349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Influence of Plotinus on Basil of Caesarea’s Homiliae in hexaemeron","authors":"David C. DeMarco","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article argues for Plotinian influence on Basil’s Homiliae in hexaemeron. It is composed of two major sections. The first section discusses three major flaws in John Rist’s “Basil’s ‘Neoplatonism’: Its Background and Nature,” namely: 1) the problems with Rist’s focus on the peculiar features of Plotinus, 2) Rist’s overestimation of the effect of Nicaea on the reception of Platonic ideas by Christians, 3) the lack of evidence regarding both Basil’s time in Athens and the assumption that post-Plotinian Platonism is too pagan to be of interest to Basil. The second section examines three passages from Basil’s Homiliae in hexaemeron, namely, 1,7, 2,2, and 2,7. The first passage exhibits clear indirect, though not direct, or exclusively Plotinian influence. The second example reveals a shared idea that most likely derives from Plotinus due to other contextual aspects. The final passage shows a close relation between Basil and Plotinus, in which the differences are better explained by the different goals of the authors rather than by the lack of contact and dependence on common material.","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125222180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Basil’s Knowledge of Astronomy","authors":"Colten Cheuk-Yin Yam","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper explores Basil’s knowledge of astronomy. It shows that Basil must have learnt astronomy already from his youth. It also demonstrates why and how Basil holds a complex attitude towards astronomy (as shown in Homily in hexaemeron 1 and 6). Finally, by comparing Basil’s knowledge of this science with the astronomical handbook of his time, it argues that Basil has made use of Origen but not lavishly copied him, and the level of his astronomical knowledge did not go beyond Cleomedes’ Caelestia, which is the most elementary astronomical handbook in ancient times.","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134325577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Origen’s Understanding of Genesis 1:1–5","authors":"R. Heine","doi":"10.1515/zac-2022-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2022-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This essay addresses two key questions that Origen raised about the creation story: the nature of the heaven and earth referred to in Gen 1:1, and the identity of the abyss and the darkness mentioned in Gen 1:2. It argues that he understood the heaven and earth of Gen 1:1 to refer to an immaterial plan for creation conceived and held in God’s Wisdom, and that the abyss and darkness refer to the realm of Satan and the demonic elements. It suggests that Origen’s understanding, at least about the second set of questions, had shifted in his later thinking from what it was earlier.","PeriodicalId":202431,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124055222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}